San Sebastian's Culinary competition mixes Spanish, Asian flavours

Section to open with Pep Gatell’s documentary about leading restaurant Mugaritz.

The San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 18-26) has unveiled the 17 titles that will make up its Culinary Zinema strand - seven of which will be accompanied by themed dinners by chefs of “international prestige”.

The section will open with Pep Gatell’s documentary, Off-Road. Mugaritz, Feeling A Way, about the San Sebastian restaurant that is regarded as one of the best in the world.

The strand will close with Cooking Up A Tribute, in which the team from El Celler de Can Roca close their doors for five weeks to travel across Mexico, Peru and Colombia, personally reinterpreting their ingredients and traditions. The doc is co-directed by Luis González and Andrea Gómez.

The films are two of nine titles that will play in competition, which also include:

The strand, now in its fifth year, is a collaboration between San Sebastian, the Berlinale and the Basque Culinary Center.

Andoni Luis Aduriz, from Mugaritz, will prepare the opening dinner, while the Roca brothers from El Celler de Can Roca together with a chef invited by them will be in charge of the closing dinner.

Other chefs participating throughout the week include Mikel Gallo, Rubén Trincado and members of the Nove Group galician association. More chefs will be announced in the coming weeks.

Culinary Zinema will continue its collaboration with the Tokyo Gohan Film Festival, which also largely focusses on food cinema. The jury chosen by the Tokyo Gohan Film Festival will present one of the films programmed in the “Culinary Zinema” section with an award of €10,000, going to the international distributor of the film or the producer.

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